When traveling on superhighways and expressways, errors during a lane change frequently lead to dangerous situations. Vehicles traveling in the passing lane are suddenly forced to slam on the brakes because of vehicles merging in front of them, or an accident may even happen.
A frequent cause is that the differences in speeds between the currently used traffic lane and the traffic lane to which a change is intended are underestimated. For example, a driver who initiates a passing maneuver of a truck traveling at 80 km/h possibly may not realize that the vehicle approaching in the passing lane is traveling at a speed of 250 km/h. Speed differences of more than 100 km/h may also arise when the traffic in one lane slows down in front of an obstacle and a driver tries to merge with the traffic in the other lane which is moving at a normal speed.
European Patent No. EP 1 858 745 B1 describes a lane-change assistant, which recognizes an intended lane change to an adjacent traffic lane, detects other vehicles in this adjacent traffic lane, and evaluates the collision risk. Warnings and other measures are initiated as a function of the collision risk.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,475,491 B1 describes a system that, in the case of an autonomously driving vehicle, detects gaps between vehicles traveling in an adjacent traffic lane and appropriately controls the change to this adjacent traffic lane.
PCT Application No. WO 2007/014 633 A1 describes a lane-change assistant, which recognizes when the detection range of the environment monitor is partially shadowed. The assistant deactivates itself in such a case and informs the driver of this fact.
PCT Application No. WO 2016/081 488 A1 describes a system for evaluating intended lane changes, which can reliably assess the collision risk with another vehicle approaching very rapidly even if the exact angular position of the other vehicle in relation to the ego vehicle, and thus the traffic lane currently used by the other vehicle, is not able to be ascertained.